The Peach Blossom Fan

Peach Blossom Fan

The legendary play created during the early Qing Dynasty by Kong Shangren has kept its integrity over three hundred years because of the quality of the material. And also it has maintained it's verve because of the dynamics between the characters and the themes that are so poignantly presented.

What are some of the relationships between the citizen and the society (or the state), in this play? There are many examples of the relationships between individual citizens and the society (the state) in this play. In Scene 1, page 7, Ch'en sings that the royal authority is being tested in Nanking; indeed, there is war and battle and the drumbeats can be heard. It is so intense that citizens are afraid to cross the river albeit it is flowing so peacefully and entices people as it winds through the groves of the willows and the orchards. Wu explains that the government's battles with the bandits are not going well (the dynasty is in trouble) and this has a profound effect on the citizens. The future of those living in central China is unclear because those citizens are vulnerable. The point here is while the state battles the interlopers, the citizens are affected, as they are in any war zone situation.

On Scene 3, "The Disrupted Ceremonies" Juan attends a sacrifice in the Temple of Confucius, but the social set (the society called the Revival Club) pounces on him, led by Wu, who asserts that Juan's guilt as a traitor is well-known and that Juan has no right to be in the temple. "You guzzle iniquities and gobble filth," Wu charges (p. 28), "Shooting secret arrows into the Eastern Forest, Weaving your plots in the Western Shed…" (Wu, 28). Juan argues that he has every right to attend the sacrifice, given that he is a disciple of Chao Chung-I and that he is a worthy person. But instead of listening to his justification for his attendance, he is physically beaten by the Master of Ceremonies (p. 29), reviled for his part in the Eastern Forest Party, and Wu urges everyone to attack him, which they do. This an individual against the society at hand, and he is treated mercilessly and cruelly. Later, in Scene 4 Juan rages at the way politics has entered into the world of art and it has hurt him even though he shares music and poetry with the same social group that beat him and derided him as a traitor (p. 35); he may have been trying to ease the tension with this group, paving the way for fewer hostilities in the future.

In Scene 16,-page 113, when the new Emperor Hung-kuang is settled in his position, as the new head of state, he dreams of making "the virtue of my ancestors shine again / and enjoy the veneration of my subjects; they will raise me to the bluest Heaven / As a curtain is lifted, the clouds clear from the sky…" He dreams of being in a bed made for royalty, and he got there by avoiding being part of a war. The bandits have captured Honan, and killed his father, who has gone to heaven, and now it is he who must interact with his citizenry.

How do the citizens respond to the new state leader? They are thrilled on page 114, saying the palace has a new kind of splendor and though they have not actually paid personal respects and homage to him, they urge him to get up on the throne and "adopt a new reign-title in response to the deepest desire of all your people" (Scene 16,-page 114). Could Hung-kuang really be the wisest leader ever in China? Or are the citizens ("subjects") just so glad to see him in a place of authority they are flattering him? They beg him to take the Throne, and he says that he is not talented and virtuous enough (and bold enough?) to take a position he feels unworthy about.